Kristalina Georgieva, 60, is responsible for the activities of one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid donors. Before joining the European Commission in 2010, Georgieva was Vice President and Corporate Secretary at the World Bank, where she was responsible for the strategic dialogue between its senior management, the Board of Directors and the 186 countries that make up the World Bank Group shareholders.

Prior to joining the World Bank in 1993, Georgieva worked in academia in her native Bulgaria and in the US, lecturing on development topics at the Australian National University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chinghua University, Yale, Harvard, the London School of Economics, and the University of the South Pacific. She holds a PhD in Environmental Economics and a MA in Political Economy and Sociology from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia. Georgieva was born in Sofia, is married, with one child. In addition to her native Bulgarian, she is fluent in English and Russian, and is learning French.7

Communication Sans Frontières:
Can you briefly explain your role as European Commissioner, and your current missions?

Kristalina Georgieva:
My position – European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection – was created in 2010 and brought together the Commission’s humanitarian work and its activities in emergency response. This exists as a portfolio in its own right as disasters have grown in frequency and intensity – at any one time, between 20 and 30 countries are at war, on the brink of conflict, or barely out of it. This increases humanitarian needs, making it more relevant than ever to coordinate joint European emergency operations and to increase the efficiency of our disaster management and relief aid policies.
Thanks to the solidarity of European citizens, the service I lead – the European Commission’s Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response (ECHO) – has assisted more than 480 million disaster victims since its conception four years ago. The number is impressive, but equally so is the fact that we’re helping so many people with less than 1% of the EU annual budget – just over €2 per EU citizen.
The main crises at the moment are Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic – all declared « Level 3-type emergencies », the most serious in the UN’s classification. With all of them the European Union is a leading humanitarian donor, but we and our humanitarian partners face enormous obstacles: restricted humanitarian access, enormous risks for aid workers and ever-worsening violence.
On the policy front, my major priority is to move forward the agenda of resilience, that is the ability of individuals, households, communities and countries to withstand, cope, adapt, and quickly recover from shocks such as violence, conflict, drought and other disasters without compromising long-term development. It is a priority with unparalleled potential to reduce disaster damage and risks.
We are working to include a disaster risk reduction component in all policies of the Commission, from investment in rural development to environmental protection standards. Faced with more and more disasters this is a smart move, but it also makes economic sense: each euro invested in prevention saves between four and seven euros in damage!

 

CSF:
You are responsible for managing and mobilising assistance from EU Member States to reach over 120 million men, women and children caught up in the chaos of disasters every year. How do you communicate effectively and efficiently to reach such a large group?

KG:
Our primary target audience are the citizens of the European Union, whose generosity makes it possible for the EU to give humanitarian aid. So, the audience we need to reach is even larger – 500 million EU citizens, plus the beneficiaries of our assistance.
We also reach out to our partners – the organisations through which our assistance reaches the people who need it the most. We work with more than 200 humanitarian partners, ranging from the biggest agencies of the United Nations to small NGOs. In our joint projects, we work to make sure that the practical results of our work are visible.
For us, communication has two important objectives: accountability to those who fund us and also raising awareness about what we do. Let me give you an example. Children are the most vulnerable victims of conflict and suffer from both visible and invisible wounds. It is our moral obligation to help them by providing safe spaces where they can grow up and study, schools so that they can have a future which is better than their past. To support them it’s equally important to mobilise public opinion. Unless we raise awareness about the issue, we can’t stop the cycle of child violence and instability.

 

CSF:
Is the efficiency of your work linked to your capacity to communicate ?

KG:
In my work, efficiency means primarily making sure that the funding at our disposal is used in the best possible way to benefit the world’s most vulnerable, needy individuals and communities. But we also have an obligation – to our citizens, to their representatives at the European Parliament, to EU governments – to show what we are doing with their money and how we are translating their solidarity into results. So, our capacity to communicate is relevant to getting the job done, as well as to the fundamental need to be accountable to those whom we serve.

 

CSF:
What are the biggest communications obstacles?

KG:
The number and intensity of disasters is growing, and so is the impact of conflicts on civilians. When Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, there was a flood of news about it for weeks. It is a challenge, however, to draw attention to crises that are not so large or so widely covered. The fact that the cameras and reporters have left does not mean that their suffering is less great. Around 90% of disasters remain invisible. The European Commission pays special attention to such « forgotten crises », like the internal conflicts in Colombia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the conflict and malnutrition in Yemen, the Saharawi refugees in Algeria. One in seven euros of our humanitarian aid budget goes to forgotten crises. We also engage in advocacy to attract much needed international attention.
Another challenge is to mobilise attention and assistance before an emergency turns into a full-blown crisis. It’s easier to raise funds for malnourished children than for those with acute malnutrition. At the same time, investing in prevention is so much more effective – it costs less than 10 euros to prevent a child from slipping into malnutrition, but it costs hundreds of euros to save her life once she is already severely malnourished. So, it’s important to pay attention to « the dog that doesn’t bark », but stopping it in time is difficult.

 

CSF:
You have a social media presence – you have a Facebook, you’re on Twitter, and you write a blog. Do you write/post yourself, or do you have staff who contribute?

KG:
I write some of the entries myself and I have a team that helps me. I tweet several times a day and engage in conversations on both Twitter and Facebook. More often than not, I personally answer the messages I receive through Facebook. I have also done a couple of Facebook chats and most recently – a Twitter chat. The topic was EU Aid Volunteers – a new programme which will give Europeans interesting opportunities to become volunteers in humanitarian projects. The main audience for this programme are the young – either in age or in spirit. So many of them are on Twitter these days it was only natural to go where the conversation is!
The blog also reflects my thoughts and emotions, which is why I work closely with my staffers and we exchange drafts until we’re happy with the result. It can be time-consuming, but early in my mandate we decided that it’s worth the effort – my work takes me all over the world and introduces me to many interesting stories – not just of suffering, but also of amazing resilience, grace under fire, generosity of spirit. These stories are worth sharing.

 

CSF:
In your opinion, how helpful is the social media aspect of communications in your job?

KG:
Different media allow us to reach different audiences, so social media is helpful. We are still learning how to use them in the most effective way, but it’s important to be engaged. More and more frequently, communications campaigns are done online, where they reach out to millions of people. Today, no modern institution that values accountability and owes it to its citizens, can afford to be off the social media radar.
They are useful for the humanitarian community, because they amplify the voices of those whom we are trying to help. Furthermore, they are a tool to enhance awareness about the work of humanitarians, many of whom risk their lives to save others. Social media offers direct and powerful tools to share information, educate the public about our work, and generate support for our causes.

 

CSF:
You have said, ‘Very often we do a great job but people are rarely aware of it’. Who do you mean by ‘people’?

KG:
European citizens. The European Union is the world’s largest donor – a position made possible because of the generosity and solidarity of its citizens. We owe it to them to keep them informed about what we are achieving with their money, to show them the life-saving and transformative power of their solidarity. To boost the visibility of EU humanitarian assistance has been an important pledge I made early in my mandate.

 

CSF:
What are your plans to develop measures to improve the visibility of the European response? To what extent do you think the commission needs to improve its communication strategies?

KG:
Our number one priority is to help those in need: visibility follows. But my portfolio also includes international cooperation and advocacy. We take communication seriously – it’s an obligation to our citizens, and we have good stories to tell! We make a real difference for real people, we give hope to people who have lost everything, we make it possible for countries destroyed by poverty and disasters to redevelop and boost their resilience to emergencies.
One of the measures we’ve taken is to make sure that every project we fund has a visibility component: we’re asking our humanitarian partners to acknowledge the support of the European Union, for instance by displaying the European flag.
Our communication plans also include the best possible use of our great asset – the field network of humanitarian experts that stretches across 39 countries and consists of around 460 European and local staff. With the help of our regional information officers, based in Dakar, Amman, Nairobi, Managua, Bangkok and New Delhi, we can draw on that expertise as much as possible in our communication activities. We are also working intensively with local, national and international media, drawing their attention to our work and facilitating their coverage of humanitarian issues.

 

CSF:
When it comes to humanitarian situations and action the Western media dominate communications channels. How important is the role of the local press to communicate at ground level during humanitarian crises?

KG:
Both types of media are very important, serve different goals and different audiences. We work a lot with, and depend hugely on, local media. For example, disaster risk reduction – an enormously important priority in our world of growing disaster vulnerabilities – can only succeed if it becomes part of people’s daily lives. In emergencies, the faster the information reaches people, the better. First responders play a crucial role in every crisis. Local people, your family, your neighbours, the local doctors are often the first sources of help when a disaster strikes. Local media are also among these first responders. For example, local Kenyan radio directly saves children’s lives in Dadaab, one of the largest refugee camps in the world with more than half a million Somali refugees, by spreading information about the importance of children’s vaccination and vaccination drives.
We work with local media to spread awareness, for instance, on how to construct flood- and storm-resistant houses in flood- and cyclone-prone parts of Asia, or how to detect child malnutrition and to bring babies at risk to a nutrition centre in drought-affected sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, the media plays a vital role in education and helping people better understand our world and their place in it. I believe it deserves all the support they can get in this important mission.

 

CSF:
How do you think the world press covers humanitarian situations? Do you have a specific strategy for dealing with the media?

KG:
In the river of news, a new crisis washes away an old one. The media’s attention doesn’t stay focused on an emergency for as long as it lasts. Humanitarian crises are prominent if and when they are dramatic, but protracted humanitarian crises and the factors behind them and their consequences – are increasingly in the public’s blind spot. More than 90% of disasters stay invisible.
The internet and social media are only a partial remedy. Yes, there is much more news available online, but let’s be honest – many more people follow celebrities than global news on Twitter and Facebook. I hope that the media will stay tuned to their special obligation – to keep us informed of what we need to know, not just what we are interested in. Some are succeeding in making the important interesting in novel ways: for example, the Guardian’s collaboration with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Thomson-Reuters foundation.
As for our own media strategy, the European Commission has a global communication strategy and within it strategies for each region and sometimes, for each crisis. The main aspects of these strategies are to be transparent, to communicate in a timely way and to be proactive. We also engage in campaigns to raise awareness about issues that are not getting enough coverage, for instance silent disasters, the education of child-victims of conflict and the growing threats faced by medical workers in emergencies.

 

CSF:
What do you think of the statement from a communications manager of a humanitarian organisation ‘the media only serves to fill the coffers of NGOs’?

KG:
I think it’s cynical and wrong. The media serves a very important public function – to educate people, including about the problems of our world, and to shed light on the suffering of the most vulnerable. Without the dedicated work of journalists, the moral consciousness of the international community is at risk of lying dormant. Look at Syria – journalists risk their lives to show what the Syrian people are going through. Look at the Central African Republic, where a French photojournalist was murdered in May while reporting on this long-forgotten conflict. Media coverage mobilises support for the victims. Yes, some of this support goes through NGOs, and that’s commendable. I know from experience that there are humanitarian NGOs – in South Sudan, in Myanmar, in Afghanistan – doing vital work with not much money. They need funding to continue.

 

CSF:
One of your objectives is to put a special emphasis on reinforcing the gender dimension in the Commission’s humanitarian operations. Do you think this dimension in humanitarian crises is neglected by the media?

KG:
I am sure the picture varies from country to country and from one outlet to another but we still have a long way to go to help women – victims of violence, conflicts, malnutrition and disasters, and to empower women in general. As long as there is work to do on this important priority, all of us – humanitarians, politicians, civil society and the media – must do more.

 

CSF:
As a woman yourself, have you ever experienced difficulties in your role?

KG:
Yes, I have had difficulties when confronted with stereotypes. When I was working in senior positions at the World Bank and I went on business trips, sometimes official delegations would shake hands with my male colleagues and ignore me, thinking I was the interpreter or assistant. So I trained my colleagues to make the introductions by saying – this is our boss! I’ve learned that to overcome inequality, women need to work harder than men, and also to lead by example and pave the way for the women coming after us.

 

CSF:
What disgusts you the most today ?

KG:
My work confronts me with the worst examples of human misery and suffering. Strangely enough, this has made me more positive and less likely to complain. We are constantly confronted by multiple emergencies and we must learn how to cope with all of them at the same time. At the moment, the humanitarian community is struggling with three « Level 3 » crises – in Syria, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Among them, Syria is the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our times. If we fail to cope with all these simultaneous emergencies, the price will be enormous – not only for their victims, but for all of us who will inevitably feel the effects of destabilisation, no matter how far we think we are from it.
And yet, what disgusts me the most is that we are not learning from our mistakes, we are still sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet. And yet, humanity has proven ingenuous in finding solutions to problems that once seemed impossible to overcome. So I have no doubt we have the capacity to do it again. And I hope we will.

 

CSF:
What satisfies you the most ?

 

KG:
Human kindness. In numerous crises, I’ve seen that the worst brings out the best in people. In unimaginable tragedies, from earthquake-ravaged Haiti to typhoon-hit Philippines, from Japan after the triple disaster of 2011 to the jungles of war-torn North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I’ve seen people who find in themselves the strength to offer a helping hand to others even when they themselves need help. We rarely hear the stories of these people – unlike evil, goodness is quiet and doesn’t scream for attention. But it is there, and this is both satisfying and reassuring.

 

Propos recueillis par Claire MacDonald © Communication Sans Frontières® – CSF